Brief Introduction
The traditional Chinese culture has a long history and Confucianism basically occupies a backbone position. Confucianism has gone through various dynasties since Confucius initiated it, and has been the mainstream of Chinese ideology, politics and culture.
Generally speaking, the development of Confucianism can be divided into three phases. The first phase of Confucianism is pre-Qin Confucianism. The second phase refers to that the natural science of the Song and Ming Dynasties, which is the Confucianism formed under the impact of foreign Indian Buddhism and native born Taoism. The Confucianism under the impact of western culture since modern times is the third phase.
In the first phase of Confucianism, the representatives are Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, whose thoughts are dominant at the initial stage of Confucianism. During this period, Confucianism took shape. In the second phase Confucianism was carried forward. It plays a positive role in transforming social traditions. In the third phase, the country gained scientific development and was founded democratically on the premise of adhering to the traditional morals and spirit of Confucianism.
 

 The first one is "humanity" which is the core of the political thoughts of Confucius. It put forward the ways of how to conduct oneself and deal with relationships between people. Confucius regarded "humanity" as the highest principle, the standard and mode of conducting oneself, the object of which was to optimize human relationships.

Life is filled with suffering and sorrow;

Book of Songs (Shijing); Book of History (Shujing);  Book of Rites (Lijing); Book of Changes (Yijing); Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunjiu); Four Books (Sishu); Analects (Lunyu); Great Learning (Daxue); Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong); Book of Mencius (Mengzi)
 

Influence on China

Confucianism, existing in China for several thousand years, still has tremendous potential influence on all the aspects such as politics and economy in China. Confucian thoughts have been the most basic mainstream value of the Chinese people through the ages. The basic values of Confucian thoughts of "rite, justice, honesty, shame, humanity, love, loyalty and filial piety" are the basic rules of consciousness for the daily conduct of most Chinese people all the time. The courteous, friendly, gentle, honest, tolerant, earnest and industrious temperament of the Chinese nation has also gradually developed under the education of Confucianism.
 

A Comparison between Confucianism and Buddhism

Confucianism, founded by the Chinese philosopher Confucius, belongs to a kind of philosophy, while Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Guatama, belongs to a kind of religion. There is a difference between religion and philosophy. A religion talks about death, the afterlife and god(s) while a philosophy only talks about what one should do in life.

Confucian ideas involved social order, harmony and a good government. Five relationships were included in Confucianism. They were: